Atlanta technology leaders have long called the lack of venture capital firms in the city a weakness for the innovation ecosystem, but that landscape is changing.
Eight Georgia venture capital firms raised funds totaling $439 million in the first half of 2021, according to a PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association’s Venture Monitor report for the second quarter. PitchBook defines venture capital funds as pools of capital raised for investing in startup equity and does not include growth-stage firms, which it considers private equity.
That amount of funds is a record for the city. In 2019, seven funds were raised. The number of venture capital firms in Atlanta is growing alongside massive growth in startup funding.
Georgia companies have raised almost $2 billion of venture capital in the first half of this year, already surpassing the total amount of money raised in 2020, according to the PitchBook report. That’s the most companies have raised since the report started in 2006.
As Atlanta emerges as a tech hub, continued growth in venture money is a key component to a health technology ecosystem, said John Yates, a technology attorney at Morris, Manning & Martin.
Nine Atlanta venture capital firms are raising or have closed first funds this year, according to Atlanta Inno reporting.
First funds emerging in 2021 is a national trend, according to the PitchBook report. There were 67 new funds totaling $3.6 billion in the first half of the year, which is on track to surpass last year's new funds.
More firms in Atlanta means more companies have an incentive to grow locally, Yates said. Those firms also provide startups with connections to growth-stage capital coming from other markets, such as Boston or New York.
Atlanta has historically lacked seed to Series A institutional investors, Yates said. Eight of the new funds target this growth point for startups.
The dot-com bubble in the late ‘90s could serve as a lesson for these new firms, Yates said. A hot tech market with high startup valuations and lots of capital resulted in a crash where new investment firms had portfolios of stagnant companies. Yates says the market isn’t at that point, but these new funds need to be deliberate about investing.
“They don’t have a track record yet,” Yates said. “They need to be careful and cautious about how they deploy capital so they can build that record.”
Many of the new early-stage firms are led by experienced entrepreneurs who understand the operational side of building a company, which will help the founders in their portfolio and the success of the firm, Yates said.
“They’re not just pure investors,” Yates said. “They have the value of knowledge and the capital. That’s vital.”
Here’s a list of Atlanta firms that are raising or have closed their first fund in 2021.
Automotive Ventures
This $7 million fund invests in automotive technology, such as innovations in the retail car market or autonomous and electric vehicles. CEO Steve Greenfield spent about a year raising the fund, which closed in June. Automotive Ventures has 70 investors.
Circadian Ventures
Founded in 2020, Circadian Ventures is raising a $15 million fund targeting early-stage startups founded by veteran entrepreneurs. Serial entrepreneur and investor Mike Dowdle started the firm after doing syndicate investing because he saw a need for more early-stage firms in the market.
Collab Capital
This early-stage investment firm closed a $50 million fund focused on startups led by Black founders in late May. Google for Startups Head Jewel Burks Solomon, Atlanta Techstars Social Impact Accelerator Director Barry Givens and Goodie Nation Co-Founder Justin Dawkins founded the firm a year and a half ago.
Mammoth Scientific
This firm launched a $100 million fund to help health science and technology startups grow past their Series A round. The Mammoth team includes health experts and entrepreneurs, including Dr. Jay Yadav, who is also CEO of Marietta-based MiRus. The fund comes during a time in which the life science sector is seeing a record amount of capital growth.
Overline
Led by partners Michael Cohn and Sean O’Brien, Overline closed $27 million for early-stage startups in the Southeast in March. The firm has mostly local investors, including Atlanta marketing technology startup Mailchimp, media giant Cox Enterprises and Atlanta Tech Village founder David Cummings. The firm announced its initial close in April 2020.
Panoramic Ventures
Serial entrepreneur Paul Judge and BIP Capital CEO Mark Buffington rebranded BIP Capital into Panoramic Ventures. Its first, $300 million fund focuses seed to Series B startups founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs in underrepresented regions. The formation of the fund was announced in February, and the partners had raised a little over a third of it.
Silicon Road Ventures
Silicon Road Ventures closed its $31 million in early March. Founded in 2019, the firm invests in startups across the country that focus on innovation in retail, e-commerce, financial technology, payments, logistics and supply chain. Its goal is to fund 40 startups over four years, partners Sid Mookerji and Ross Kimbel said.
Sound Media Ventures
Sound Media Ventures is raising a $25 million fund to support media technology startups. Founder Shep Oren started the fund in 2020 and has backing from executives in esports, music and film. The firm is focused on early-stage startups from anywhere in the world.
Zane Venture Fund
Early-stage investment firm Zane Venture Fund closed a little under 10% of its $25 million fund in late May. The firm is focused on investing in diverse founders who are creating technology-enabled solutions in the Southeast. The close includes investments from Calendly CEO Top Awotona and Fulcrum Equity Partners Founder Jeff Muir. The firm was founded by Shila Nieves Burney in 2018.
Atlanta Inno's Fire Awards 2021
Yieldi grew 300% in 2020, a year after its founding.
BitPay has processed more than $5 billion in transactions and has more than $70 million in investments, including from Silicon Valley’s Founders Fund.
FilmHedge provides fixed-interest loans and lines of credit to finance movie and TV productions through an online application.
LendingPoint scored a $125 million investment from Warburg Pincus earlier this year and has more than 300 employees.
Founded in 2007, Bluefin raised $25 million at the end of last year to expand its geographical reach, which already includes 130 partners across 32 countries.
Buckle raised a $31 million Series A round and bought Gateway Insurance Company to expand into 47 states in 2020.
In 2020, MAXEX tripled its annual volume and expects the growth to continue this year.
Curricula, an Atlanta Tech Village startup, raised $3 million last year to expand its team to 30 and released a new product earlier this year
Featurespace raised $37.4 million in 2020 to fuel its expansion into Singapore. The Technology Association of Georgia named it an innovative company of the year.
Oversight, which has more than 200 enterprise partners, made the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2020 Pacesetter Awards list and garnered recognition from TAG for its innovation.
Hermeus is leasing a 110,000-square-foot space in Doraville for its headquarters and aircraft assembly factory and raised a $16 million round last fall.
Nexus Fuels, backed by Cox Enterprises' Cleantech division, has produced about 310,000 gallons of oil and diverted more than 2.7 million pounds of plastic from the landfill.
Flock Safety raised $47 million last year and aims to help lower the city’s rising crime.
Earlier this year, Valor closed its second, $21 million fund, which includes investments in Physician360 and LeaseQuery.
This seed-stage investment firm closed its first fund of $27 million earlier this year, surpassing its initial goal.
This early-stage investment firm launched at the end of the last year to help grow tech-enabled companies founded by veteran entrepreneurs in the Southeast.
Zane Venture Fund has investments from Calendly CEO Tope Awotona and Sig Mosley, the “Godfather of Angel Investing.”
The goal for Panoramic Ventures' first fund is $300 million, and the firm has a team of more than 25.
iFOLIO, which is hiring, has more than 5,350 clients, including Madison Square Garden and Atlanta Falcons.
Backed by Shark Tank billionaire Mark Cuban and Atlanta Ventures, Offbeat Media Group is using innovative marketing strategies to help brands advertise on social media.
Terminus raised $90 million and plans to increase its 200-person team to 250. It’s made four acquisitions in past three years.
Founded in 2015, inBrain is the second fastest-growing company on University of Georgia’s 2021 Bulldog 100 list.
The Desire Co., founded in 2015, has $4 million in investments and grew its team by 41% in the past year.
Founded in 2011, DecisionLink raised $18.5 million from prominent Silicon Valley firm Accel at the beginning of this year.
LeaseQuery, which was bootstrapped until 2019, is backed by Goldman Sachs and consistently garners local recognition for its fast growth.
In 2020, M3 updated products to include work-from-home accessibility and added 61 new customers.
11Ten Innovation Partners was named an Atlanta Business Chronicle 2021 Pacesetter and has partnerships with Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub and the Verizon 5G Innovation Hub.
Speedscale, backed by Silicon Valley’s Y-Combinator and Atlanta’s Tech Square Ventures, prevents product incidents in programmers’ code through automation.
In 2020, PadSplit raised $10 million and is expanding into other cities.
Empowrd completed the 2021 Cox Enterprises Social Impact Accelerator this year.
This fintech company, backed by Valor Ventures, wants to close the gap for the unbanked or underbanked population.
A partner of the Atlanta Braves, PrizePicks is the closest legal alternative to legal mobile sports betting in many areas across the country.
Founded in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X program, Stord raised $100 million from West Coast investors and bought transportation provider Cove Logistics this past year.
Verusen raised $8 million earlier this year after seeing massive growth in 2020 because of an increase in demand due to the pandemic
Saltbox raised a $10.6 million round to expand into more cities around the U.S. and add 50 people to its team.
SalesLoft hit unicorn status at the beginning of 2021 with a $100 million round.
Gimme released a new product late last year and saw an increase in demand during the pandemic as companies looked for technology to better manage their supply chains.
As delivery demand increased because the pandemic, Roadie launched their services to 3,000 new stores in two months.
Greenlight Financial Technology raised $260 million in May 2021, tripled its year-over-year revenue in 2020 and plans to hire 300 employees in the next two years.
Calendly raised a $350 million investment earlier this year, putting its valuation at more than $3 billion.
OneTrust raised $210 million in April and has bought three companies in the last five months.
PPRO opened its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta in 2017. In 2021, it became a unicorn with a $180 million round.
Atlanta Tech Village opened their doors back to entrepreneurs in May 2020 and kept all 300 company tenants throughout the pandemic.
Tech Alpharetta has more than 50 mentors and has 15 startup graduates, mostly in technical software sectors.
The Gathering Spot connected members digitally through a program called “Circles” and increased its membership during the pandemic. The club is expanding into Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.
